AV Receiver Reviews

Onkyo TX-NR545 Atmos-Ready AV Receiver Review Test Bench

Test Bench

This graph shows the TX-NR545’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads. Measurements for THD+noise, crosstalk, signal-to-noise ratio, and analog/digital frequency response were all within expected performance parameters. Full details available at soundandvision.com.—MJP

0.1% THD 1.0% THD
2 Channels Continuously Driven, 8-Ohm Loads 67.6 watts 87.6 watts
2 Channels Continuously Driven, 4-Ohm Loads 89.0 watts 131.3 watts
5 Channels Continuously Driven, 8-Ohm Loads 46.5 watts 61.5 watts
7 Channels Continuously Driven, 8-Ohm Loads 44.5 watts 56.0 watts

The Onkyo does not upconvert; the resolution at its output is the same as the resolution at its input. It will pass a 4K source at an HDMI input to a 4K set.—TJN

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COMMENTS
prm1177's picture
Submitted by prm1177 on August 28, 2015 - 5:53pm

"My argument in one sentence is: Three channels in front, four in back—what’s wrong with this picture?"

Surround channels in film were never rear channels. The surround channels in cinemas always ran along the side of the auditorium and then followed along the back wall. To this day, you will see the majority of the surround speakers are still arrayed along the side of the auditorium. When surround EX was investigated by Home THX and Dolby for the release of "The Phantom Menace", the question was how can we add additional channels to the 5.1 already imprinted Dolby SR-D soundtrack on film. The solution was a matrixing of LS and RS to achieve a center rear channel. This evolved eventually into two rear channels. However, please don't refer to surround channels as "rear channels".

Mark Fleischmann's picture
Submitted by Mark Fleischmann on September 5, 2015 - 7:54pm
Following EX, surround in the home evolved to discrete side-surrounds and back-surrounds, for instance in DTS-ES Discrete (there is also a Matrix version), DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, etc. My statement as you quoted it referred to side- and back-surrounds, together, in home systems, without using specific home surround terminology. I write about surround sound for the home. As far as movie theater technology is confirmed, I bow to your greater experience, but it has never been my intention to write about that -- and it is pointless to conflate theater tech with home theater tech.
Fitzkirk's picture
Submitted by Fitzkirk on August 30, 2015 - 9:53pm

I think "triple-threat" should read "triple-treat"?

prm1177's picture
Submitted by prm1177 on September 6, 2015 - 2:32pm

I am curious. Why is it pointless to conflate theater tech with home theater tech, when the program material played back on the latter is overwhelmingly the former? There are respected manufacturers who do name their surround channels by recommended location (LR/RR), but these folks have a deep history in surround formats (say Ambisonics) where the source encoding was based on geometric symmetry.

Perhaps I misread your intent here, as four speakers in the back of the room certainly would provide a skewed sound field, but even Dolby has always recommended a placement of surround speakers to the side and just behind the listener, and not in hte back of the room.

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